help: Pelvic TB

[emjae1741]

Can anyone help me: What's the pathophysiology of a Pelvic TB? her chief complaint is abdominal enlargement and the surgery done to her is bilateral salphingectomy. I just can't connect them all. How does abdominal enlargement be a symptom of a pelvic TB and why remove both fallopian tube?! Pls.. Thanks.

[Daytonite, BSN, RN]

TB can infect any organ of the body. We mostly know it to infect the lungs, but it can also affect the female reproductive organs. It most commonly affects the fallopian tubes and the patient will have salpingitis. The treatment is removal of the fallopian tubes. I'm not sure about your patient's abdominal enlargement. It may also be a sign of the TB in other organs in the same area. Here are links to articles about TB and TB in the pelvic area:

• http://www.brown.edu/Courses/Digital_Path/Female/salpingitis.htm
  
• http://library.med.utah.edu/WebPath/TUTORIAL/MTB/MTB.html - Pathophysiology of Tuberculosis. See "Genital Tract Tuberculosis " halfway down the page
  
• http://www.gfmer.ch/selected_images_v2/detail_list.php?cat1=7&cat3=592&stype=d
  
• http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/understanding-tuberculosis-basics
  
• http://www.ecureme.com/emyhealth/data/Tuberculosis.asp - scroll down the page to tuberculosis salpingitis
  
• http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/tutorials/tuberculosis/htm/index.htm
  
• http://www.who.int/topics/tuberculosis/en/
  • http://www.who.int/tb/challenges/gender/page_1/en/index.html

[emjae1741]

Thanks!